


Blue on Blue

by Anonymous_Skrub



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2018-12-16 15:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11831157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Skrub/pseuds/Anonymous_Skrub
Summary: i got addicted to jess/rey so here we gowarning: will contain- PTSD- Panic attacks- other possible triggers





	1. Skies of Takodana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the Valkyries.

[Takodana]

 

The worst part about a battle is the waiting. Absolutely hands down the worst part. While fighting, you had something to do, or you were already dead. Waiting, that was torture- it was not knowing when to start fighting or not.

 

Jessika Pava hated waiting. Despised it. That’s why she was always so nervous coming out of hyperspace.  **One minute** , her astromech told her. “Thanks, Arthur,” she said. R4-5U tooted another reply in binary.

 

_ In… Out… In… Out… In… _ The white and blue expanse of hyperspace rapidly peeled away to stretching white, and finally-

 

“KRIFF, I HAVE A STAR DESTROYER RIGHT IN FUCKING FRONT OF-” Jess heard shouted over the comms by Commander Twed Cruply, Blue Leader. As she finished emerging from hyperspace, she swore and veered hard to starboard, narrowly avoiding the bridge of the vessel, which Twed had become very close acquaintances with.

 

“Blue Leader is down, I say again, Blue Leader is down!” Blue Two reported, pulling ahead of Jess and assuming lead position. Jess looked back and saw other X-Wings narrowly avoiding slamming into the  _ Finalizer _ .

 

“That’s Ren’s flagship,” Jess breathed into the squadron comms. She quickly looped over to line up with Two as they tried entered Takodana’s atmosphere. 

 

“We’ve got TIEs incoming! Interceptor-class and standards, bearing two zero eight!” Red Three reported, wiggling his wings as long-range laser cannons tried to get a lock.

 

“I’ve got a torpedo lock! It’s coming from the destroyer!” Blue Eight reported, gunning the sublights to evade oncoming missiles. “I’m on your six, Eight, going for your trailers!” Blue Ten said, breaking formation.

 

“Everyone, listen up- Red Squadron, Black Squadron, you’re on me into atmo. Blue Squadron, Gold Squadron, Green Squadron, keep this area clear and try to disable that capital ship,” Commander Dameron ordered.

 

“Alright, Blues, lock S-foils in attack position and prepare to engage,” ordered Captain Warren Vidac, Blue Two. Jess hit the S-foils and the satisfying sound as the wings expanded soothed her ears. “Quad-fire, dial in targets at 200 meters. Up close and personal,” Two continued.

 

Red and Black Squadrons blazed into the atmosphere, tiny black and white specks with purple tails. “Hey Poe, bring me back a drink, would ya?” Jess said, on a private line with the commander. “I’ll try my best, O Gay One,” Poe shot back, roar of re-entry in the background.

 

Peering behind her at the regrouping fighters, Jess focused on the swarm of fighters just two clicks out and closing.

 

“Gold Squadron, load launcher one with proton torpedoes and set to detonate at one click. Hold for my signal,” Gold Leader ordered. The Y-Wings all acknowledged, and as the rangefinder ticked down to one point three clicks, they fired. Blue trails winked out as the torpedoes rapidly closed the distance.

 

“Green Squadron, execute maneuver Whiskey Seven,” Green Leader ordered, and the A-Wings shot forward after the torpedoes. “Three, two, one…” Jess counted down, and then-

 

“Multiple hits!”

 

“Good kills!”

 

“Entering turbolaser range, keep an eye out!”

 

“Green Seven is gone! Faith is gone!”

 

“Incoming flak! From the destroyer!”

 

Jess shoved all the chatter to the back of her mind and focused on flying. Turbolaser blasts- massive, green,  _ hot _ \- flew by, some hitting, some missing. TIEs screamed by, the hideous screech of their engines, causing Jess to flinch. And then, “Blue Squadron, break formation and engage at will! Force be with you!”

 

She shot into a reverse roll, and immediately zeroed in on an Interceptor. Poor fool was just shooting at her, and now-  _ squeeze _ \- he was dead.

 

“I’ve got a fighter on my tail!” Blue Five called out, weaving in between a dogfight between a Y-Wing and another TIE fighter. “Got your six, Five,” Jess drawled, and lined up the TIE in her sights, and squeezed. Four red blasts of pure energy tore the unshielded bastard’s fighter apart, wings flying out as the centerpiece of the ship was obliterated.

 

“Thanks for the save, Three!” Five said, veering away, Jess on her tail. “Don’t menti-” Jess started saying, but was cut off as gun emplacement on the destroyer tore through her shields. “Kriff!” she spat, plunging towards the planet in an attempt to gain speed through the gravity well.

 

“Arthur, damage?” she asked, already noticing the left pedal locking up.  **Damage to the upper left sublight engine, stabilizers, and weapon capacitor. The capacitor I can fix, though.** Jess nodded, and ordered, “Get on it, buddy, we’re sitting ducks without our guns.”

 

A welding arm appeared from her astromech’s dome, and within a few moments, the flashing red lights warning her of the bleeding energy faded. “Nice job, pal,” cried Jess, immediately diving into the path of an Interceptor and shredding it, pulling up and back towards the fight.

 

“This is Gold Two, we’ve lost seven Golds! We can’t hold out much-” the transmission cut off as a turbolaser sliced through the bomber. Jess’ heart clenched- and then hardened. “Blues Four through Seven, on me- Gold Squadron, form up between us. We’re gonna hit’em where it hurts,” Jess shot out, already looping back into her squadron’s rough AO, taking two TIEs with her.

 

“On your wing, Blue Three,” a Gold responded, her Y-Wing hit and trailing sparks. Jess focused on blasting her way through the swarm of enemy fighters, and finally saw her target. “Blue callsigns, hit the shield generator on my mark. Golds, launch two torpedoes two seconds after. We’re hitting their main hangar,” Jess barked, already lining up the generator. 

 

Defensive guns popped out and opened fire, prompting the Resistance fighters to return it. 

 

“Green Squadron is moving to thin out those guns, Blue Three! Hang tight!” Green Leader said, already leading the snubfighters in a blistering rain of fire, with a dozen guns already destroyed and two torpedo launchers.

 

“Much appreciated, Green. Blues, ready… mark!” Jess shouted, squeezing her trigger. However, her stabilizer gave out and she skittered to the left, missing by centimeters. However, the rest of her squadron hit it, and torpedoes were let loose.

 

“All callsigns, break formation and return to base!” Dameron suddenly barked. Jess looked out at the Star Destroyer, and was pleased to see flames jutting out from its belly. However, a large shuttle also landed in a secondary hangar, flanked by several pitch black and red TIE Advanced fighters- the aerial honor guard of the Knights of Ren. Which meant- 

 

“Holy hell, that’s Ren’s shuttle,” she breathed. However, her reverie was broken as Poe screamed into the comms again, yelling at her, “PAVA! JUMP TO FUCKING HYPERSPACE!” 

 

Quickly locking onto D’Qar’s coordinates, she swung her fighter around to see a dozen torpedoes heading  _ right at her _ . “Punch it, Chewie!” someone barked over the comms, and suddenly Blue Three was gone- the torpedoes sailing into the deep black background. As she sailed the stars in hyperspace, she had an unbidden flashback to her first days in the Resistance.

 

_ “What is Master Newton’s first law, cadet?” Young Jessika Pava stared straight ahead at ramrod attention, fists curled and thumbs on the seam of her trousers. “Sir, Master Newton’s first law states that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside fire, sir!” she shouted, still staring straight ahead. “Correct, Cadet Pava,” replied the instructor.  _

 

_ “STAND AT, EASE!” He barked, and the platoon shifted their left feet to their shoulder and placed their hands behind their backs, left on top of right, and turned their heads (or just their eyes) to view the instructor, a short Bothan. He was standing in front of a standard-issue New Republic 750mm flak gun round, still loaded. _

 

_ “This, recruits, is a 750mm flak round, and the guns of a Mon Cal cruiser and Imperial Star Destroyer can accelerate one up to 1.3 percent of lightspeed. It can rip apart the side of a destroyer or blow away an entire city neighborhood! As Cadet Pava stated, once you fire this bad bastard, it will go until it hits something! That makes Jedi Master Isaac Newton the deadliest sonuvabitch in the galaxy! So somewhere, sometime, you are very much ruining somebody’s day! That is why we wait for a targeting solution, Cadet Dameron! You do not “eyeball” a target! You are  _ **_not_ ** _ Luke Skywalker! You are not “using the Force”! You are launching a weapon of mass destruction! Do you understand me, you dumb, bantha-shit-headed, arrogant Sithspawn?!” _

 

_ Poe was sweating and pale, and literally shaking in his boots as he snapped back to attention and shouted, “SIR, YES, SIR!”  _

 

_ “GOOD! NOW ALL OF YOU, FIFTY LAPS AROUND THE BASE! WHAT ARE YOU MAGGOTS WAITING FOR? MOVE IT!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just make a Mass Effect 2 reference in Star Wars? Oh hell yes.


	2. 21 Guns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Resistance mourns their losses, each in their own ways. Some suffer the consequences of war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a filler I made at like... 2 AM? 3 AM? Eh.

**[D’Qar]**

 

“A-tten-tion!”

 

Heels snap together. Fists gently brush trousers. Somewhere, a bead of sweat or a tear falls, the only moving thing on a face of a member of a frozen army.

 

“Honor Guard, for-ward! March!”

 

_ Left… left… left, right… _

 

Jess’ fists clenched as caskets draped in blue, red, gold, and green slowly walked by.

 

“Honor Guard, halt!”

 

Step, stomp.

 

Caskets are laid down.

 

“Proceed with the ceremony.”

 

Rifles- old A280 models, fitted with bayonets- are stabbed into the ground in front of each casket. Boots- black, leather, pilot’s footgear- are placed in front of each rifle. Steel dog tags are wrapped around the buttstocks. Helmets- white, visors up, each different,  _ unique _ \- are placed gently atop the rifles.

 

“Pre-sent! Arms!”

 

_ Upper arm 90 degrees, parallel with the drill surface. Lower arm bent to form a 45 degree angle at the elbow. Forearm and hand straight. Fingers touching the outer edge of your right eyebrow or equivalent. _

 

Names were read.

 

“Lieutenant Brex Tanyip, Gold Six. Ensign Corran Darklighter, Green Seven. Captain Trexer Hanes, Green Two. Sublieutenant Garrus Shepard, Blue Eleven.”

 

_ So many names. _

 

“Or-der! Arms!”

 

_ “I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOUR FIST SLAP YOUR THIGH, CADETS!”  _

 

Her arm gently yet quickly returned to her side.

 

“Dis-missed!”

 

Jess let out a shaky breath and pivoted on her left heel, executing an about face, before making her way to the rec room. She needed a drink. She needed to-

 

“All pilots, to your ships. All pilots, to your ships. This is not a drill.”

 

_ Kriff. _

 

\---------------

 

Minutes and a terror-inducing debrief later, Jessika found Poe in his X-Wing doing… nothing. No pre-flight checks, no equipment checks, no cleaning for whatever reason- nothing. 

 

BB-8 nudged her leg and let out a low whine. _ “Friend-Poe is nonresponsive, Friend-Jessika,” _ they said. Jess furrowed her brow and climbed up his X-Wing. She had found him like this once before, and she knew it had nothing to do with losing the entirety of Green and Gold Squadrons over Takadona.

 

She settled on his snubfighter’s nose, watching him. Eventually, Poe found his way back to reality.  _ Phase one complete. _ He stared helplessly at Jess. This wasn’t Poe Dameron, confident, swaggering, cocky commander of the Resistance. This was Poe Dameron, the broken man with a lifetime of tragedies stuffed in his young mind.

 

“I was there again, Jess,” he whispered hoarsely. “He was there, too. And he made me see everyone again. Relive Mom’s death, relive Dad’s drunken grief, relive seeing everyone die again- and then he made me see everyone else die.”

 

Tears streamed down his face, but no sobs shook him. Jessika did the only thing she could think of to help Poe right now.

 

“They think that we are defeated,

Broken and shamed,

Crowing their victory,

That is not theirs to claim.

 

But we are stronger,

Much stronger than they,

We are united

And shall make them pay.

 

They will never defeat us,

Now mark our words,

The glory of the Republic,

Is forevermore saved.

 

Hail to our heroes!

For many are they,

Champions of freedom,

They ensure that evil will pay.

 

Jedi and soldiers,

Guardians eternal,

Face off the darkness,

And triumph is theirs.

 

Now hush now,

My Child,

There is nothing to fear,

When the Army of Light,

Stands ready and near,” she sang softly. 

 

Poe had closed his eyes, and the tears had stopped. He looked up and opened his eyes. 

 

“Thanks, buddy,” he whispered, giving a tight lipped smile.

 

She returned it with a soft one of her own. “Anytime, boss,” she replied just as softly.

 

“All pilots, scramble your ships.”

 

Jess and Poe nodded, and Jess slid off Black One, and dashed over to her own X-Wing, slipping on her helmet.

 

“All teams, this is General Organa. Check your HUD for coordinates, and prepare to jump to lightspeed,” rang the strong voice of the former princess.

 

As Jess taxied her way out of the hangar and into the vast emptiness of space, a final transmission reached her ears.

 

“May the Force be with you.”

 

Jess exhaled sharply, and locked on to the given coordinates. Turning, she asked, “You ready, Arthur?” The astromech beeped in affirmative. 

 

“Alright, people, this is it. Prepare to jump to hyperspace in three… two… one…”

 

As black became blue and stars became streaks of white, Jessika settled herself in for a quick power nap in lieu of sitting anxiously.

 

Jessika Pava hated the waiting in a fight.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That song is completely original, by the way. I had Skyrim on the brain and just figured, "I'm gonna make a Skyrim-like battle song because I fucking can."


	3. Falling Angels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle of Starkiller Base begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slowburn continues

[Starkiller Base]

 

“All teams, form up on me. We’re hitting that oscillator with everything we’ve got. Lock S-foils in attack positions. Sound off when ready.” Poe sounded so sure, so confident, not at all like the miserable mess he was in the lonely cockpit in the D’Qar hangar.

 

“Red Two standing by.”

 

“Blue Five standing by.”

 

“Red One standing by.”

 

“Blue Twelve standing by.”

 

Flipping power to forward shields, and arming her torpedoes, Jessika finally keyed her mic. “Blue Three standing by.”

 

Easing her fighter through the atmosphere, Jess felt a few jolts run through it. Evidently, a few hours wasn’t enough to complete her repairs. Her stabilizer was still wonky.

 

“You okay, Three?” Blue Two asked, a slow turn in progress letting her look beyond her shoulder. “So far, Two. Stabilizer is still shot out after Takodana- holding up though,” she replied, gritting her teeth as the Gs put extra pressure on her stick.

 

The X-Wings cruised the ground, staying low as can be before finally-

 

“All pilots, break off and begin attack runs!”

 

They rocket off a cliff and immediately pull up in a straight 180 climb. “Incoming ground fire! Turbolasers, flak, and homing missiles!” Explosions light up the darkening sky.

 

“Here we go, Arthur!” she yells, cutting the engines and dropping in a 180 before gunning the thrusters, becoming a white and blue streak. The HUD targeting computer locks onto an exhaust vent of the oscillator, and the rangefinder slowly ticks away the meters.

 

10000.

 

5000.

 

2500.

 

1200.

 

200.

 

“Fox two, fox two,” she reports, sending two proton torpedoes streaking to the vent, before pulling up. Arthur wails as he shrieks about  _ Starfighter make scary sparks, friend-Jess! _

 

“Hell yeah! Get some!” someone from Red Squadron calls out, to which someone else immediately responds, “But there’s no damage…”

 

Poe orders more attack runs, and reminds them about their solar hourglass, before uttering, “Oh krif- that’s a lot of company! Break formation and engage at will!”

 

Jess takes a look and her heart drops. There’s at least 120 TIEs- 10 squadrons- and just 24 X-Wings, plus First Order ground emplacements.

 

“Time to earn your pay and become an ace, Blue Squadron. Let’s kick ass,” Blue Two shouts, peeling off and immediately blasting two TIEs. Pilots whoop and yell, and you hear one scream as a flaming X-Wings shrieks towards the ground.

 

“We just lost R1,” she finds herself saying.

 

She snaps her head forward and launches into a barrel roll, evading a TIE and blowing away one behind it, before looping around and putting a quadfire shot in the first one, switching her fire selector over to individual before decimating the shield of another, causing it to bank left uncontrollably.

 

She feels mindless, blowing away more fighters, but then  _ even more  _ come, and you think you see a Star Destroyer in orbit, and-

 

“Red Seven, Twelve, and Blue Six making an attack run!”

 

Jess swoops in and clears off a dive bombing fighter, cursing as debris smashes into her fighter. 

 

“Turbolaser on your two, Twelve! Bank left!”

 

“Stick locked up! I can’t mo-  _ Bzzzzt _ ”

 

“Red Twelve is gone! Shit, Six, I’ve got missiles! Pull up!”

 

“Almost there, just stay on target!”

 

She eerily recalls watching- hearing, rather- footage of pilots from the original Death Star infamous “Trench Run”. Porkins said the same thing and he was killed.

 

“Blue Six, pull up  **now** .” Poe demands, cutting through two gun towers and blasting apart a satellite guiding the missile launcher he also destroys.

 

“Just a little more- aaaan- FUCK! HOLY SHIT, I’M ON FIRE! IT FUCKING BURNS! OH HOLY FUCKING KRIF IT HURTS! AAAAAGH!” Blue Six suddenly cries, and Jess watches as his burning fighter streaks toward the ground, smashing into the snow. 

 

“Two, you still with me?” Jess asks, trying to shake a very persistent TIE pilot. She gets silence. “Hold on, Arr-Four,” she growls, and she only uses his letter and number designation when she’s about to do something  _ very  _ stupid. 

 

So she dives into a turbolaser.

 

“Shift all power to forward shields, then get the reverse thrusters ready to go on my mark,” she barks, and the green plasma shakes her, causes her teeth to rattle, and warning klaxons to blare, but she holds steady. She glances at her shields and gulps. She can take  _ maybe  _ one more-  **WHAM-** she takes that back. 

 

“Come on, come on… NOW!” 

 

She suddenly is thrust against her harness and kicks the sublight engines, and blasts just out of the laser’s path before it hits the TIE behind her center mass.

 

“DAMN STRAIGHT!” She yells, barrel rolling back into the fray. Another TIE screams by on another X-Wing that’s already trailing smoke, and a mangled transmitter. The little krayt skulls adorning the cockpit are what Jess notices.

 

“Two, hang tight,” Jess says, smoothly gliding behind the black and red fighter. Suddenly the guns divert from Blue Two- whose destroyed transmitter is why she didn’t respond, Jess assumes- to Jess, and she spits, “Kriff!” before diving out of the line of fire. 

 

“C’mon, you miserable bastard,” she growls, jerking her fighter side to side. Her shields are still punched out, and as she jerks the stick again, a blast skims her cockpit and scrapes the top of her fighter. 

 

Lining up the enemy fighter in her sights again, Jess squeezes the trigger with a bit more force than necessary, letting out a cheer as the fighter spirals toward the oscillator. 

 

“Hell of a shot, eh, Arthur?” she asks her astromech. When no response is given, she keys her comlink again. “Arthur? Buddy?” Taking an opportunity in the lull in the fighting, she twists to look behind her.

 

A smoking astromech port greets her. 

 

Jess settles back down and sighs. Klaxons blare as a missile lock on, and she swears and dives. Blue Two is still flying around, but with no comms, he’s mostly in the blind.

 

“Poe, we’re getting fucked,” she spits, diving into the trench and pulling up harshly, leading the missile to smash into a turbolaser emplacement. Suddenly she gasps, her chest suddenly  _ burning _ , as if someone shoved a hot knife through her chest. Following that, she vaguely heard a woman screaming, “NO!” before snapping back to reality.

 

“I know, Jess. We just need more tim-” Poe starts saying, before Ziff counts him off. “Black Leader, there’s a brand new hole in that oscillator. Looks like our friends got in.”

 

The ground team. Han Solo, Chewbacca, that ex-stormtrooper, Finn. Jess stared at a slim, vertical gap in the oscillator’s side. “That’s a real small hole for an X-Wing, boss,” Jess mutters, still feeling chills from… whatever that was.

 

“That’s why I’m going in. All teams,  **run that trench** ,” Poe shouts, diving away from the 40-something odd TIEs still flying. “On your wing, Two,” Jess reports, getting a wing wiggle in reply. Least Warren was receiving.

 

“Snap, Jess, on me. Everyone else, break off and give us cover from those fighters.”

 

The fighters break off, racing up to meet the almost invisible fighters in the almost pitch black sky.

 

Jess dodges, weaves, and rolls, blasting turbolasers, and fighters that break through their ten fighter screen. As they approach the hole, Poe sends her and Snap off.

 

“Force be with you, Dameron,” Jess mutters, breaking off to see Blue Two have a sublight engine blown. “Kriff, Arthur, can y-?” Jess stops, remembering that her astromech was dead. 

 

“Shit,” she breathes.

 

“All fighters, this is Blue Three. LET’S LIGHT THESE BASTARDS UP!”


	4. Legacy of the Jedi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Or: I'm totally gonna tie Revan into this fic because fuck it why not)

**STARKILLER BASE**

**LIEUTENANT JESSIKA PAVA**

**BLUE 3**

 

“Splash two!” Jess reported, weaving around an exploding TIE Interceptor pair. She dived low to the ground, before looping back up and taking out another TIE fighter.

 

“Someone tell Poe to hurry the fuck up,” Red Eight reported, swearing as a TIE fired at him and the blasts splashed against the weakening shields. As if on cue, the thermal oscillator blew sky high, and Poe let out a long whoop on the radio.

 

“Our job’s done here, guys. Break to bearing oh-three-three and head home,” he breathed.

 

Jess frowned, feeling like they were forgetting something. Her eyes widened. “Black Leader, Blue Three, what about the ground team?” she asked frantically, scanning with eyes and sensors for the Millennium Falcon.

 

“Shit,” Poe muttered, “all callsigns, anyone see the Falcon or its crew?”

 

“Negative.” “No vis.” “Don’t see nothing, boss.”

 

Poe swore, “Dammit. Jess, do a flyby and look for them.”

 

“Copy that, Black Leader. Blue Three breaking off, conducting CSAR (combat search-and-rescue),” she responded. She shot off towards the rapidly shattering surface of the planet, sweeping with sensors and visuals.

 

“C’mon… c’mon…” she muttered, sweeping low behind the oscillator. A flash of red and blue caught her eye, and her throat clenched. “Black Leader, I see them. There’s a girl… fighting…” her eyes widened, “Kylo Ren.”

 

“Blue Three, say again. Fighting  _ what _ ?”

 

“Poe, she’s fighting Kylo Ren… With a lightsaber of her own,” she breathed. Suddenly, in the middle of her loop, the girl was thrown back into a tree. Jess broke off, and 180’d, locking her sights on Kylo Ren before he finished her off.

 

“Let’s go, you sonuvabitch,” she growled, and squeezed the trigger. Red plasma spat from her quadwing cannons, about to blow the young Sith away. Suddenly, they stopped mid air. Jess’ eyes widened again. He turned to stare at her, and twisted a fist. Suddenly, all her bolts slammed into her fighter, and klaxons started blaring.

 

“JESS!” she heard, before the nose of her snubfighter crashed into the snow, slamming into a tree and spinning before stopping by crashing against a dense grouping of more trees.

 

Jess swayed side to side in her seat, a dull ringing in her ears and shaky vision. Something warm trickled down her face and her chest was aching. Someone was saying something but she couldn’t make it out. She blearily looked up and an angel of death stood over her.

 

As her vision cleared, she realized that was no angel of death. Her cockpit was torn from her fighter, and she was thrown from her seat. Sailing through the air, she crashed back down into the snow, rolling a few times. Groaning as she pushed herself up, Jess saw Kylo Ren stalking toward her, lightsaber drawn and hissing as it melted snow as the Sith dragged it.

 

She reached for her sidearm before remembering what he did to her fighter. Grimacing, she unsheathed a wicked 8” combat knife lined with cortosis-weave. Sliding it into an icepick grip, she began circling Ren as he did the same. 

 

And then they charged.

 

He went for a powerful overhand strike, which Jess dodged, and slashed with her blade along his ribs. Her knife glanced off his armor, and she swore, before the lightsaber came again. She desperately deflected it with her knife. Ren kept coming, slashing, hacking, trying to brute force his way through her defenses. Every tiny cut she made seemed to have no effect, and she was backed against a tree. 

 

He finally ripped the knife from her grip, tossing it behind him. Jess stared defiantly back into his eyes,  grasping the thermal detonator on her back. As he brought the blade down, before Jess keyed the detonator, a blue blade intercepted his. Both turned to stare at this girl breathing harshly, eyes aflame as she prevented the lightsaber from lopping off Jess’ pretty head. (She’s allowed to be conceited right now, alright?)

 

Ren growled, and moved away from Jess, who breathed a sigh of relief. Running over to her knife, she watched the two duel for a time, before swearing and grabbing her comlink. 

 

“This is Pava, anyone copy?” Static. “Blue Three reporting in, Poe, you there?” Bzzt.

 

“FUCK!” she screamed, before whirling around as the girl collapsed, lightsaber landing behind her. She glanced at Jess and somehow Jess understood what she was trying to say.

 

_ I’m sorry. _

 

Before she even consciously realized it, Jess was standing in front of the girl, knife forgotten, and holding her hands out to try to stop the lightsaber from tearing through both of them.

 

As Ren thrusted down, Jess just thought,  _ Least I get a cool death. _

 

As a pressure forced itself upon her palms, she pushed up. Surprisingly, it worked. She opened her eyes, and stared in amazement as her hands sparked, but Ren’s lightsaber blade was stopped mere millimeters above her gloved appendages.

 

“WHAT IS THIS?!” he roared, pressing down harder. Jess responded by pushing up harder, grunting and sweating buckets. A voice, accented, and a bit breathless snarked a retort.

 

“The Force.”

 

_ Snap-HISSS! _

 

And the pressure left her hands. She watched as Ren stumbled back, a gaping hole in his abdomen. He stared back at them, shocked, as the ground shook and crumbled between the two girls and himself. As they drifted apart, Jess felt a hand in her hair.

 

_ Huh, lost my helmet. _

 

She realized she collapsed against the other girl, who was staring back at her in amazement. Light brown eyes bored into hers as she stared back. A lump in her throat formed, and she swallowed. Suddenly the other girl shot up. “Finn,” she gasped, dashing behind her. Jess unceremoniously collapsed, staring after her dumbly before scrambling up and following.

 

As they reached the injured ex-stormtrooper, Jess reached into her thigh pocket and pulled out her emergency blowout kit. “Here, let me,” she whispered, before turning Finn over and grimacing. A long line was present along his back, revealing a cut spinal cord and several nerve endings. She hurriedly sprayed bacta all over the wound, before slapping all her gauze on it and trying to tape it all up. 

 

Suddenly, off the cliff, a harsh light shone on them. Raising her hand, Jess made out the form of a Wookiee in the cockpit, gesturing up the descending ramp. Turning to the girl, she shouted, “TAKE HIS ARMS! KEEP HIM UPSIDE DOWN! DON’T PUT EXCESS PRESSURE ON THE WOUND!”

 

Grabbing Finn by the legs, she and her still unnamed companion sprinted up the ramp as the cliff crumbled behind them. They laid Finn facedown on a bunk, and dashed into the cockpit. 

 

“Chewbacca?” Jess gasped. The Wookiee sadly mewed as he got up, clapping her on the shoulder. The other girl stared at Jess, inquisitively. Jess squirmed before sliding into the pilot chair, prompting her companion to take the co-pilot seat. 

 

“Any Resistance forces, this is Blue Three. I’m with the ground team and we-” Jess was cut off by Poe shouting, “THERE THEY ARE! ALRIGHT, LET’S GET OUTTA HERE!”

 

Jess snorted, before lining up the old YT-1300 behind the X-Wings, and blasting into atmo. Turning to the other girl, she asked, “Where’s Han?”

 

The forlorn look she gave when she raised her head was enough. “Oh,” Jess whispered. She pulled the hyperdrive in silence. In the swirling blue infinity, she turned back to the other girl.

 

“Jessika Pava,” she muttered, holding out a hand. The other girl looked at it, before taking it and mumbling, “Rey.” They stared at each other in silence.

 

Jess bit her lip before wordlessly opening her arms. A warm body crashed into her, muffled sobs and tears cascading onto her shoulders.

 

She began softly singing.

 

“They that we are defeated,

Broken and shamed…”


End file.
